Understanding the Spiritual and Practical Purpose of Priestly Celibacy
Once in a while, a well-meaning parishioner will suggest to me, “Father, don’t you think we would have more priests if we eliminated the requirement for priestly celibacy?” I very much understand the idea behind the question. But I do not hesitate for even a moment in responding that priestly celibacy is critical for our Church.
In the first place, we look at our Lord’s call to the apostles, who would become His first priests: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And they immediately left everything to follow Him. They had to be free to go where He led them. They would all lay down their lives to serve as His priests and spread the Gospel. They were not of divided heart; they committed themselves to Jesus and His work alone. Priests continue in this tradition today.
We can contrast this with other men whom the Lord called, like the man who first wanted to bury his father, or the man who asked to return home to say goodbye to his folks. Jesus rejects their pleas. He has called them to a radical discipleship. Most of Jesus’ followers are indeed married; but if the Lord calls a man to serve Him more fully as a priest, he cannot do it with divided loyalties. He is called to give all to Jesus, and it would not be fair to a family for a man to place his dedicated service to the Lord as minister of His mysteries ahead of a wife and children.
Do not forget: we call our priest “Father” because he serves as the head of our parish family. Each priest is to treat every parishioner as his own son or daughter. How would this work if the priest were also a natural husband and father? Could he love his biological children more than his adoptive children? Should he? Would Christ? And how would his own wife and biological children feel about that?
But there is a deeper, truer reason for priestly celibacy. When a man is ordained a priest, he becomes an alter Christus, an “other Christ”. He is to configure his life to resemble Christ’s as much as possible; even the last stage of seminary formation is called the “Configuration Stage,” as men seek to emulate their Savior in all things. And first-and-foremost, what characterizes Christ is His self-sacrifice. Jesus is identified with His Cross. He freely took on humanity, and He then freely gave it up for our salvation. Our Lord’s Sacrifice is re-presented at every Mass, and at his ordination, the priest promises to carry on offering this Sacrifice for the rest of his life.
Without a self-gift, without configuring Christ’s sacrifice to be His own, the priest is just mimicking what Jesus did. He is not an alter Christus, but an actor Christus. Jesus’ self-sacrifice, and the imitation of it by our lives, is at the heart of the priestly spirituality. Married people are called to sacrifice too, of course, but primarily for their spouse and children. But priests are called to lay down their life for the people of God as Jesus did. Priests become other Christs by embracing simplicity of life, as Jesus did, by obeying their bishop, as Jesus taught, and by forgoing the gift of marriage, thereby being free to give themselves to God’s people. This is the ultimate in what Jesus Himself did.
People worry that priests might get lonely. It can happen, from time to time, just as people in all the other vocations experience loneliness sometimes as well. But you must remember: all vocations are calls by the Lord. If the Lord calls a man to priesthood, He will give Him all the tools and graces necessary to thrive that way. Priests revere marriage, but we understand that the Lord has asked us to forsake it for the sake of God’s people. Priestly celibacy has been a hallmark of our Church from the beginning, and this grace will continue to empower priests to serve the Lord with their whole being.
By Fr. Jeffrey Ellis